A graduate's perspective on medical student journals

Medical student journals (MSJs) refer to a cluster of entirely student-led periodicals that publish student-authored articles. A recent review showed that MSJs characteristically employ a student-friendly and feeble peer review process, which is largely associated with poor quality of published articles. Herein, as a graduate medical student, I call on peer medical students to make an informed decision in refraining from submitting their research work to MSJs for four primary reasons. These reasons, generally, include: 1) opaque peer-review process, 2) lack of MEDLINE® indexing, 3) absence of official journal impact factor scores, and 4) poor article visibility and exposure to scientific community. Furthermore, I encourage students to take advantage of the existing opportunities provided by the professional MEDLINE®-indexed journals in disseminating their research work. These opportunities include: 1) the absolute welcoming calls for student-authored contributions, and 2) the designated 'student contribution corners’. Lastly, I succinctly highlight the joint duties of medical schools, undergraduate research committees, institutional review boards and mentors in publishing the student-authored research work in the professional journals, rather than the MSJs.